The protagonist of the series, a unicorn (who laterbecomes analicorn) from Canterlot who serves as Princess Celestia's apprentice. She's less than thrilled at first about the suggestion that she should try making friends, but naturally winds up giving it a shot. She has a natural talent for Magic that goes far beyond what most unicorns are capable of. She's also very intelligent, levelheaded, and organized, making her a great unofficial leader for the mane six. However, her neuroses sometimes cause problems.

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Characterization and Background

The Ace: Is very skilled and educated with magic. It also helps that she was able to solve what Star Swirl the Bearded couldn't, thus becoming an Alicorn. Sometimes a Discussed Trope:

Rainbow Dash: (in "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3") Yeah, well, I'm sure you'll become a good flier in no time. After all, you're good at everything.

Spike: (in "Equestria Games") You never let anypony down, so you don't have any idea what that's like.

Action Girl: She's one of the best fighters in the series with her powerful offensive magic. This is taken Up to Eleven in Season 4's finale, where she combines the powers of all the other princesses to smash the magic-absorbing Tirek into the ground several times.

Adorkable: Whenever genuinely excited about something, such as her first slumber party ever or visiting the giant library at the Crystal Empire, her awkwardness comes into focus and it is adorable. Dialed Up to Eleven during her flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and then again immediately afterward — "Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" In "Sweet and Elite", she dances like such a nerd it's adorable. Possibly in a Shout-Out to Seinfeld. Equestria Girls shows this does not change when she turns human. In short, if there's one time that Twilight will always look like a dork, it's when she tries to dance.

Aesop Amnesia: Just try to count all the times she's forgotten not to freak out over small things. Leave it to her old foalsitter Cadance to give her a long-awaited stress relief method in "Games Ponies Play".

Agent Scully: Tends toward this despite being a lavender unicorn who can do magic. She justifies this in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" by explaining that true magic as can be done by all unicorns has been boiled down to a science.

All-Loving Hero: She's more cynical and grouchy than the norm, but fills this role in the places that count, moreso than Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. She's the wielder of the Element of Magic (a.k.a. Friendship), in the two-parter episode, "The Return Of Harmony", she is the only one who didn't get Hate Plagued by Discord, and in "A Canterlot Wedding", is able to see through the fake Cadance because she knew the real Cadance so well.

Ambiguous Disorder: Twilight shows severe signs of OCD, anxiety issues, schizophrenia, and even impostor syndrome. Her humbleness is taken to the point of being unable to recognize her own great feats, she begins to break down and panic whenever something goes wrong, and she's intensely detail-oriented. She clearly has some sort of mental problem, perhaps several, but it's not fully clear what. Given her bookish nature, and general social awkwardness early on, something similar to Autistic Spectrum Disorder seems the best fit.

Angst Nuke: Her tendencies to flare up reaches its limits in the first part of "The Crystal Empire".

Twilight Sparkle:...JUST A TEST?!Spike: Uh... Yes? (Twilight throws her house in the air)

Arbitrary Skepticism: The fact that she's a talking unicorn who can perform magic and uses dragonfire to send letters to an alicorn who controls the rotation of the sun, does nothing to dissuade her from often declaring things she doesn't recognize as bogus and hooey.

In "Bridle Gossip", she dismisses the idea that Zecora cursed the group, and declares confidently that ghosts, spirits and zombies are just as ridiculous.

In "It's About Time", she confidently informs her own future self that she is not scientifically possible. Once her future self explains that there are time travel spells, she accepts it and eagerly starts asking questions about the future.

Audience Surrogate: As the central character, to whom Ponyville and its residents are introduced at the same time as to the viewer, she is intended one.

The B Grade: She doesn't get graded when doing assignments for her mentor, but stresses out whenever she thinks she can't do an assignment in time or pass a test.

Badass: She is perfectly willing to risk her life for her friends, Equestria, and Princess Celestia, and, with the help of her friends, succeeds.

In the episode "The Return of Harmony - Part 2", Twilight Sparkle battled with Gray Pinkie Pie and Applejack after they stole her book, resulting in a Big Ball of Violence.

Part 2 of "A Canterlot Wedding" knocked this out of the park; she went into a state of Unstoppable Rage over the thought of her brother being in danger and fired several beams around the dungeon Chrysalis trapped her in that could shatter stone. She was seconds from killing the real Princess Cadance, thinking it was her impostor.

And again in "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2". After Tirek effectively nukes Golden Oak Library, Twilight goes utterly berserk. Had Tirek not been invincible at the time, she would have reduced him to not much more than a scorched crater.

Big Eater: As of "Twilight Time" she shows off an impressive, if messy, appetite.

It is unknown if she was born into that status but she and her family are surely among the supreme elite of Equestria, with Twilight being the personal protégé of Princess Celestia and her brother being at once Captain of the Guard, Prince Consort to Princess Cadance, and Governor of the Crystal Empire.

As of the Season 3 finale, she's been "upgraded" and is now officially a Princess, so she has gone from having a relative marrying into royalty to becoming royalty.

Bookworm: Her defining characteristic. She is often seen reading a book, always gave Spike books for his birthday (to his chagrin), and often brings up something she learned from a book that is relevant to the plot. Also, books are prevalent in all of her flashbacks, and, in the pilot, one pony asks if Twilight does anything but study.

Born Winner: She was innately born with unparalleled magical potential, which led to her becoming Princess Celestia's protégé, the bearer of the Element of Magic, and another princess of Equestria. Moderated by making her The Chew Toy in terms of social life and Butt Monkey in other cases.

Break the Haughty: A Lighter and Softer version; she starts as an Ineffectual Loner who believes she simply doesn't have time for friendship and is convinced that Celestia will naturally listen to her concerns. Then Celestia seemingly blows her off, sends her off to run mundane errands, and expects her to make friends in a town where she thinks she's the Only Sane Pony...

Broken Ace: Her good track record has also resulted in her having extremely high standards for herself, suffering from neuroses, an Inferiority Superiority Complex and a high order case of Super OCD. If she's not managing to be The Ace, she's convinced everyone will hate her and her very fabric of life will fall apart.

Butt Monkey: Shares this role with Spike as she runs into a lot of trouble.

The Chains of Commanding: Feels them in Rainbow Rocks. Her Canterlot High friends presume that she'll know exactly what to do and that the Sirens are as good as defeated with Twilight around to help. However, all that does is put pressure on her when she really has no clue what to do and makes her afraid to admit it to them for fear of letting them down. Sunset talks her out of it at the climax, assuring her that no one has all the answers.

Character Development: During the two-part pilot, she started out as a somewhat asocial loner who wouldn't be caught dead working with others. Over the course of that episode she learns the value of friendship and she is now often seen working with or helping her friends. Her original attitude sometimes re-surfaces but this is usually a result of stress or academic override.

She has a few linked to her obsessive-compulsive nature, slightly bigger when she's panicking. She'll pace around, and sometimes Teleport Spam around the room (usually at least once she'll appear right in the face of whoever she's talking to/at).

Also one only seen in the Equestria Girls movies once she's turned into a human: she often holds her hands bent at the wrist and with the fingers coiled, as if she'd still have hooves.

The Chew Toy: Expect her to be on the receiving end of a lot of accidents as soon she starts questioning facts, attempts to fit in, or figure out things, such as in "Winter Wrap Up" and especially "Feeling Pinkie Keen", and "Lesson Zero". Her Chew Toy status is played for major drama in "The Return of Harmony - Part 2".

Child Prodigy: Even as a filly, Twilight was unusually adept at learning new spells. In the Power Incontinence scene referenced below, Princess Celestia — a physical goddess — says she has never seen so much raw talent for magic in a pony before.

The Chosen One: According to Word of God, Princess Celestia somehow knew she was destined to be the bearer of the Elements of Harmony, which is why she was given the test of hatching a dragon egg instead of something simpler. The Season 4premiere expands on this further, as it reveals that the Element of Magic and the tree of harmony have always had the six-pointed star shape that Twilight's Cutie Mark eventually manifested as. Together with the five smaller stars around it, Twi's cutie mark literally depicts the elements of harmony.

City Mouse: The pilot and a few Season 1 episodes revolve around Twilight getting acquainted with Ponyville and its traditions, with varied success.

The City vs. the Country: Her initial plot arc is a downplayed version of this. She's sent from Canterlot to Ponyville in part to prepare for a celebration held there, but is also told to make friends while there. She resents having to do this and focuses on work instead, but by the end of the pilot, she's warmed up to her newfound friends and wishes to stay with them. It took the resurrection of an ancient Sealed Evil in a Can to make her understand that.

The Comically Serious: Anytime she attempts to look dignified and intellectual, expect it to be ruined by some other ponies' antics or her own hidden goofiness.

Control Freak: Though not overbearing, per se, her over attention to detail and occasional annoyance with her friends leads her to be insistent on her own direction of things. She also has nagging tendencies, something Spike knows all too well.

Crazy-Prepared: With a bit more emphasis on the crazy than some; Twilight is very well-read and has a variety of spells for when she needs them, or knows she can look up the spell in her library. And if there's something important coming up, she will go berserk making sure she's ready for it. In "The Crystal Empire - Part 1" she's seen rushing to gather anything she might need for Celestia's test, and informs Spike she's going to need him to quiz her on everything she's ever learned. There's also this bit from "Pinkie Pride".

Twilight: All right, everypony. According to my official goof-off rulebook... Rainbow Dash: She actually has a goof-off rulebook? Spike: Are you kidding? Twilight can find a rulebook for everything!

Twilight: Now tell me; what exactly have you actually seenZecora do? Rainbow Dash: Well... once a month she comes into Ponyville. Twilight:Ooh. Rarity: Then, she lurks by the stores. Twilight:Oh my. Fluttershy: And then... she digs at the ground... Twilight:Goodgracious.

Determinator: When she wants to do something, she'll keep trying no matter what. For better or worse.

The Ditherer: She has her moments of this, especially when she's trying too hard to keep things in order.

Ditzy Genius: She's so smart that she can name all the stars in the sky, and recite the square root of 546 to eleven decimal places, but so ditzy that she needs a reference guide to understand how to throw a slumber party, and doesn't know what a pillow fight is.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: Zig-zagged. Unless the episode explicitly involves her doing her duties as a princess, everyone seems to forget and/or not notice that Twilight is a royal alicorn.

Expy: Of G1 Twilight. The cartoon even (jokingly) implies that Twilight Sparkle is the daughter of the original Twilight. Her coloring also resembles that of Twilight Twinkle from G3.

The Finicky One: Of the highest order. Twilight has been known to start riots and rips in time due to her anal retentiveness.

Flanderization: In the first season, Twilight was orderly and no nonsense, but to a fairly lucid degree, a lot of it owed to her inexperience with social life. By the start of the second season her meticulous habits are exaggerated to cartoony measures, with a lot of gags based on her Super OCD neuroses. Inverted in other aspects, she has become far less acerbic and more outgoing and friendly, for example.

Friendless Background: In the first episode, it's shown that "she's more interested in books than friends." Some hints later on show it might not have been quite that simple. In "Look before You Sleep", she reveals she's "always" wanted to have a slumber party. In any case the first episode showed that her studies were certainly getting in the way of having a social life, even if she might have wished for one when not occupied with something else interesting as in that episode.

Go-Getter Girl: She had always strived to be the best she can as a mage-in-training and as an apprentice to Princess Celestia over relationships with others prior to meeting the other five. On the downside, this led to her having little ability to connect with others, but on the upside, she's a natural-born leader and very intelligent and talented.

Good Is Not Nice: While she was more than willing to save Equestria at the start of the series, she starts out as very asocial and aloof towards almost everyone, but she becomes much nicer towards others after the second episode, evolving into more of the lines of...

Good Is Not Soft: She's normally calm, friendly, and helpful, but when Queen Chrysalis gloated that she has her brother, Twilight had no problems trying to fry her with her laser-beam attack.

Good with Numbers: In part 1 of the season 3 premiere "The Crystal Empire", Twilight gives the square root of 546 as 23.36664289109.

Grumpy Bear: While she's not pessimistic in general, she's cynical and no nonsense in personality, and has a grouchy temper if riled up enough. However, she can switch between cynical and naively optimistic at the blink of an eye.

When the stress of the parasprite invasion finally gets to her and her tortured psyche (briefly) snaps.

In "The Return of Harmony, Pt. 2" she crosses the Despair Event Horizon (though unlike most examples, she snaps out of it later, so it's more of a Heroic BSOD).

A psychotic one over the course of "Lesson Zero".

For a brief moment in "Magical Mystery Cure" she falls into one, but she snaps herself out of it quickly.

Heroic BSOD: She suffers a huge one in "The Return of Harmony, Pt. 2", when she is finally broken by Discord and turns grey. She snaps out of it after reading the letters she sent to Princess Celestia one season earlier.

Hidden Depths: Despite her history of not socializing by choice, she reveals in "Look Before You Sleep" that she's dreamed about throwing the perfect slumber party and is innocently enthusiastic about getting the chance to try her very first one. This being Twilight, she has a guide to ensure she does everything by the book.

Hot Librarian: She takes up management of Golden Oak Library in addition to living inside of it. She fits the personality type, but is more cute than hot.

Humble Hero: Wants nothing to do with being associated with the greatness of her deeds. Rather, she wants to be viewed as an ordinary unicorn, unlike her Shadow ArchetypeTrixie and her foil Rainbow Dash. On the other hoof, Twilight's character also sets the difference between plain out narcissism and well intentioned self righteousness, and sometimes can't resist acting haughty due to her role as Celestia's apprentice and very often considering herself the Only Sane Mare. See Pride below.

This is why she makes such a great Foil to Sunset Shimmer. Twilight's humility is shown when she is content being Celestia's student, never desiring more than to learn and help others, and never thought of herself as truly better than others. Sunset's arrogance is shown when she only thought of herself, desired more and more power, and thought herself better than everypony else because of her status, and was never content with merely being Celestia's student. However, the greatest difference comes down to their thoughts on gaining the position of princess. Twilight never desired the crown yet proved deserving of it, while Sunset coveted the crown yet proved undeserving of it.

I Choose to Stay: By the end of the two-part pilot, she decides to stay in Ponyville with her new friends.

I Just Want to Be Normal: What she really wants is for others to love and accept her, and wants whichever her talent in magic will get her to. She alternately loves and hates her abilities as a mage because they distance her from others and make her a Socially-Awkward Hero but they also make her valuable and give her a higher sense of self worth. See Inferiority Superiority Complex for details.

Her favorite toy growing up was "Smarty Pants", an ugly pony doll with accessories so you can pretend she is studying. Not only does she think this was a great toy, she thinks it was so great that offering it to some young fillies will naturally cause them to fight over it. (Eventually they did... after she cast an Artifact of Attraction spell on it.)

Ineffectual Loner: Other ponies make clear efforts to reach out to her before the plot kicks off, but she blows them off.

Inferiority Superiority Complex: Twilight can be condescending and arrogant about her intelligence over the others at times, and frequently badgers others over tasks; however, it's revealed that she has brought herself up with very high standards to upkeep, and is absolutely terrified of disappointing peers or friends (and especially her superior, Princess Celestia). She had a mental breakdown when she was off schedule for a single task.

Innocently Insensitive: She doesn't realize her feelings are necessarily feelings anypony else will share, and she doesn't realize her point-blank bluntness hurts feelings. Justified because Twilight doesn't have a lot of experience dealing with ponies yet.

When she was losing her grip in "Lesson Zero", it didn't occur to her that anypony else would think that her Smartypants doll, that comes with accessories for doing homework, wasn't a great toy.

In the episode "Baby Cakes", she offers to help Pinkie Pie babysit the Cake Twins because she states Pinkie can't handle the job alone, thus offending Pinkie despite her sincere desire to help.

In the episode "The Last Roundup", when the mail pony shows up at Applejack's surprise party and thinks that the party was for him because it was his birthday, Twilight takes Applejack's message from him and slams the door in his face without a second thought. Luckily for the mail pony, Pinkie gives him a slice of cake for his birthday.

Innocent Prodigy: She took up studying magic in the first place because she adored Celestia, not for power or vanity or anything like that.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She arguably began somewhat as this in the pilot and select early episodes, where she was noticeably more acerbic and condescending. While her pompousness does reappear at times, this is usually toned down in later episodes where her rudeness is more accidental and she is far more outgoing and friendly.

Knight Templar Big Brother: Or "Knight Templar Little Sister" in her case. In the wedding episode, after Queen Chrysalis imprisons her in the Canterlot Caves, Twilight sees the real Cadance whom she thinks is Queen Chrysalis in disguise and tackles her to the ground preparing to attack her until Cadance proves to Twilight that she's the real Cadance.

Kirk Summation: To Discord in "The Return Of Harmony - Part 2" by breaking down his argument against friendship.

Large Ham: Despite being one of the more introverted ponies, she seems to have gained an amusing fondness for Chewing the Scenery. She leads the entire town into song and dance in "Magical Mystery Cure" for example.

Lawful Stupid: The comics have unfortunately portrayed her as this on occasion after her magic became a Story-Breaker Power, despite her never acting like it in the show.

Lovable Nerd: She starts out as socially awkward, and after she learns to socialize, she's still depicted as being organized almost to a fault and as a compulsive learner whose joy of studying is absolutely adorable.

Mad Libs Catchphrase: "____, you're a genius!" She notably says it to Pinkie Pie a few times, and once to Zecora.

Mr. Vice Guy: Normally even-tempered, Twilight sometimes has problems with being grouchy and dismissive when something's bugging her. She also has an insensitive streak.

Modest Royalty: While we haven't seen much of her role as a princess, Twilight has already been characterized as a Humble Heroine several times in the series, and in "Sweet and Elite" she loves the simple dress Rarity made for her saying that the simple and practical outfit was a perfect match. Both characteristics are a good fit for this trope. It's definitely telling that she prefers to keep her wings folded, whereas most ponies with wings (alicorns included) are happy with keeping their wings open. Season 4 shows that Twilight more or less refuses to dress for the role, at least when she can avoid doing so, and she still isn't comfortable with all the attention she's getting as royalty.

In "Magical Mystery Cure", when Star Swirl's unfinished spell switches the destinies of the rest of the Mane 6.

She has lighter Jerkass Realizations in other episodes, eg. after almost wrongly spearheading a vendetta against Zecora in "Bridal Gossip" or almost losing Spike as an assistant after obliviously brushing him off in "Spike At Your Service".

In "Lesson Zero", she decides if she can't find a friendship problem to solve, she'll make one to solve. Cue the whole town fighting over her old Smartypants doll she enchanted with a "Want It, Need It" spell she isn't able to disenchant.

In "Magical Mystery Cure", she tries out an unfinished spell and messes up her friends' Cutie Marks and destinies.

In "Bats!", her attempt at fixing the vampire bat problem that's been plaguing Applejack's farm accidentally gives Fluttershy a dash of vampirism.

Nice to the Waiter: Upon her arrival in Ponyville, politely and sincerely thanks the Royal Guardsponies that had been pulling her chariot, even calling them "sirs" (to which they react very positively). This is despite the fact that she is currently in a very sour mood over being sent to Ponyville in the first place. Serves as one of her Establishing Character Moments, proving that while she may be a bit obsessive and thoughtless at times, she is a good pony at heart.

She returns to form in "Look Before You Sleep", running her first slumber party straight out of the book to ensure success. It works, sort of.

In "Baby Cakes", she casually tells Pinkie Pie that she knew Pinkie wouldn't be up to babysitting the twins by herself and fails to pick up on the fact that Pinkie is offended by this statement.

Obsessed Are The List Makers: Most notably her slumber party and in "Lesson Zero", in which she makes a list of the things she needs to make a list. It comes in handy in "Winter Wrap Up", as she's the only pony there who knows how to prioritize.

Inverted during "Look Before You Sleep", where she's so intent on throwing a perfect slumber party that she insists on consulting a guidebook for everything. Justified in that she's never experienced one before and is unfamiliar with all of the classic trappings. She doesn't even know what a pillow fight is! She also wonders if a tree falling through her window is part of the procedures, but we'll just blame that on the probable concussion.

Deconstructed in "Lesson Zero". When she approaches her friends for help on completing her weekly friendship report and they dismiss it as a trivial problem, Twilight believes she is the only one who understands just how dire the situation truly is, but the audience clearly sees that it is Twilight who is bottoming out on sanity. Her myopic perspective results in disaster.

Like every other character with so much as a speck of sanity over the others, the show seems very fond of displaying her own flaws and making her do something odd or undignified whenever she gets too high a pedestal. For that extra touch of Deconstruction, most of Twilight's flawed episodes revolve around her stubbornness causing accidental chaos and winding herself up into nervous breakdowns, all usually just to prove her opinion is saner than everyone around her.

Plucky Girl: When her neurosis doesn't get the best of her she can be astoundingly determined and optimistic in grim situations.

Pride: Clearly takes a lot of pride in having Celestia as her mentor. However, she's afraid of being seen as too prideful after witnessing how ponies react to Trixie's bragging. By the end of "Boast Busters", she explains to Celestia and Spike that she's learned it's fine to take pride in your talents and put them to use when appropriate, as long as you aren't a braggart or a show-off about them.

Despite living in the Ponyville library and functioning as its librarian, she seems to have no library duties aside from caring for the books, because nopony ever comes in to borrow them.

Zig-zagged with her duties as a princess. She seems to only be needed for official functions when one of the other princesses isn't available, or it's some big event that demands all of them be present. Otherwise, she's living the exact same life as she was before and seems to have no particular responsibilities. Given the arrival of her castle at the end of Season 4 and the teaser for Season 5, it does seem this may change, though.

Properly Paranoid: The only one who thinks the behavior of "Princess Cadance" is suspicious. On one hoof this is Justified, as none of the others knew Cadance well enough to know her behavior was unusual but on the other hoof, if the others had taken her concerns and accusations more seriously as they learned in "Lesson Zero", then all the chaos that followed could have been prevented.

Resigned to the Call: Played with at the first episode; she's ready to stop Nightmare Moon when she reads about a prophecy about her return, but when Celestia told Twilight to make friends, she was against it, but went along with her orders while expecting her to realize Nightmare Moon is more important. It eventually turns out that making friends is required to defeat her.

Rightly Self-Righteous: Sometimes, but often deconstructed. Twilight is one of the saner ponies of the group, and is very vocal about it. However, most instances she gets particularly arrogant or pushy about it are a sign she'll end up Not So Above It All.

Royals Who Actually Do Something: A source of worry for Twilight. While she continues to help out against threats like Discord's plunderseeds in the premiere, Twilight herself observes that her role as princess doesn't really amount to much more than smiling and waving at official functions for most of Season 4. Subverted in the season finale where she's instrumental in saving Equestria once again.

Twilight's magical skill is off the chart, but she's a social misfit and painfully incompetent at basic manual labor.

Downplayed later on. In the first episode of Season 2, she lifted a huge rock ("Tom"), and in the last episode, she pushed a mine cart by herself.

She also showed her physical abilities when she placed fifth in "Fall Weather Friends". Yes, she used Awesomeness by Analysis to give herself an edge, but she needed to be in decent shape to keep up. Plus, it was her first race.

Sanity Slippage: Gets hit with this more often than the rest of the mane cast. Particularly in "Lesson Zero" when she was paranoid about not having a friendship problem to solve and ends up creating an Apple of Discord with her Smarty Pants doll.

Sanity Strengthening: Cadance teaches her a breathing exercise that proves useful in helping her remain calm.

Schedule Fanatic: Most notably seen in "It's About Time", where she's obsessed about how she's going to make time to make next month's schedule because she didn't leave any room to do so in this month's schedule.

Serious Business: Since her teacher is Celestia, a.k.a. the ruler of all Equestria herself, Twilight takes her studies very, very seriously. As seen in "Lesson Zero", the mere idea of failing an assignment and disappointing her teacher (which would surely be cause to send her back to... MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!) is stressful enough to unhinge her. Spike and the others lampshade this now and then.

Seriously Scruffy: She has a tendency to turn into a disheveled mess whenever stressed or preoccupied. She usually ends up turning her library inside out in the process. Exaggerated in "Lesson Zero" (where forgetting to write a letter causes her to almost go completely insane).

Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Not to an excess, but she has a more advanced vocabulary and more correct grammar than her friends. This makes her a Foil to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both of whom tend towards Buffy Speak, and to Pinkie Pie, who is a Cloudcuckoolander. The one time she plays it straight is "Hurricane Fluttershy"; complete with Spike providing a Layman's Terms punchline.

Slasher Smile: Twilight gives a very frightening one in "Lesson Zero"; made worse in that she was spying on the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the time, which gives the impression that she's a... yeah. Let's put it into perspective. Remember Pinkie's slasher smile? Twilght's is from ear to ear, and she's looking right at you.

The Snark Knight: She's a lighter example due to being new to maintaining friendships and being generally nicer than other cases of this trope.

When given materials to make a bird's nest in "Winter Wrap Up", in the two seconds it takes the camera to pan away and back, she's already laid out all the ribbons and sticks into neat rows and sorted individual strands of straw by hue.

"Lesson Zero" shows just how bad this can get when she fails to keep a schedule. She goes insane when she realizes she hasn't submitted her weekly friendship letter to Celestia, and resorts to using magic to cause a conflict so she can resolve it and write to Celestia about it.

She makes checklists for everything. Including checklists of items she needs to make checklists. She then lists "complete making a checklist" on those checklists, and at the bottom of the checklists includes reminders to double check and triple check them to make absolutely sure she didn't miss anything.

In "It's About Time", she stayed up all night worrying about not having left time in this month's schedule to make a schedule for next month.

In "Spike at Your Service", she gets so wrapped up in reading specially assigned books that she doesn't hear Applejack enter the room and yell at her. Then Applejack nudges one of her ink wells out of place, behind her back, and she instantly freaks out. Applejack apologizes for scaring her and Twilight forgives her while moving over to the desk to nudge the ink well back into position.

This Explains So Much: When she told the CMC that her favorite toy as a filly was a doll with homework accessories, they weren't surprised.

Tomboy Princess: As of Season 3's finale. While she's only slightly tomboyish, her focus on her studies is, relatively speaking, not quite as conventionally feminine as Rarity's fashion design, Fluttershy's animal care, or Pinkie Pie's catering, making her more tomboyish than average, at least as far as the main 6 characters go. She's certainly the most tomboyish of the princesses; Celestia and Cadance are each clearly shown to be acting according to the in-universe traditions of the lands they have authority over, and Luna thinks she is.

Took a Level in Badass: While she's certainly already Badass, in the Season 4 finale, after absorbing the powers of the other Princesses, she proceed to fight Lord Tirek, who had already assimilated the magic of every other pony in Equestria plus Discord, to a draw (in a Dragon Ball Z-style throwdown no less!)

Tsundere: Type B. She was a Nice Girl around Celestia, Spike, and her family, but her newfound friends set her off.

Turn the Other Cheek: Twilight isn't the type of mare who holds a grudge towards anyone. Prominent examples include her brother, her friends, and her mentor nearly abandoned her in "A Canterlot Wedding" or to Trixie in "Magic Duel". Justified as Queen Chrysalis tricked them all for the former, and the latter was Drunk on the Dark Side from the Alicorn Amulet.

Awesomeness by Analysis: Twilight places fifthnote out of an unclear but large number of racers (one competitor's number is 82, which suggests that there were at least 82 entrants) in the annual Running of the Leaves race, despite knowing about racing only from having read books about it.

Badass Bookworm: Not only talented at magic, but perfectly capable and willing to lead a charge.

She ran right at Nightmare Moon and is clever enough to turn this into a feint and teleport past her.

She places 5th in a marathon despite it being her first, using mostly her book-smarts.

She tussled against brainwashed Applejack and Pinkie Pie, both Earth Ponies (which possess greater strength and endurance than a Unicorn). She won.

Guile Heroine: She outwitted Nightmare Moon with a feint, unraveled all of King Sombra's Crazy-Prepared protections on the Crystal Heart, and used smoke and mirrors to deceive a professional magician.

How Do I Shot Web?: The Season 4 premiere shows that she has trouble flying with her new wings.

I Can't Dance: "Sweet and Elite" shows us that dancing is one of the many social activities she's yet to master, though she doesn't really seem to care.

Jack-of-All-Trades: Most unicorns can only learn a handful of magic related to their special talent, which got them their cutie mark. Being that Twilight's cutie mark is the symbol of the Element of Magic, her special talent is magic itself, thus she has unparalleled versatility in the variety of spells she could potentially learn.

The Leader: Leadership is one of Twilight's main secondary abilities, thanks to her organizational skills and levelheadedness. She serves as a Mastermind Type and Level-Headed Type leader for her group of friends, and even for the whole town of Ponyville at times.

Magical Girl: She fits a lot of the criteria (being a prodigy in magic and using powers over friendship) of a traditional version of this trope.

Magic Librarian: She's a powerful magic-user and the librarian and a resident of Golden Oak Library which holds books about magic and monster lore.

Mind over Matter: A particularly strong telekinetic. She can simultaneously levitate a humongous bear and a huge water tower.

New Powers as the Plot Demands: Justified, as she is usually seen studying and learning new things (magical and otherwise). She can improvise spells as well, though this does not always work out so well.

Not Quite Flight: Her magic force-fields can do this. "The Crystal Empire" shows her suspending herself in midair with magic, similar to what's previously been seen with Pumpkin Cake. Upgraded to true flight in "Magical Mystery Cure".

The Paralyzer: Uses her telekinesis in "Castle Mane-ia" like a mass paralysis spell, freezing each her panicking friends' bodies in place but allowing their eyes and mouths to move.

Power Copying: Unicorns use magic spells associated with their special skill. Twilight's special skill is magic, allowing her to learn spells used by any other unicorn.

In the pilot, she uses teleportation right after being subjected to it by Nightmare Moon. It gets better and better through the show; In "Ticket Master", her second subsequent use, it leaves her and Spike a bit charred, but by "Dragon Quest", she's able to pop around within the library without a thought, and has but a little difficulty in moving herself, Rarity, Rainbow, and Spike, all running at full speed, safely away from danger.

In "A Dog and Pony Show" when she copies a spell used by Rarity, though Rarity did teach her how to do it.

Her "Want It Need It" spell used in "Lesson Zero" may play on Princess Cadance's love-infusing magic that she saw as a filly. Alternatively, if Cadance merely made them remember that they loved each other and why, then the spell she used to un-Discord her friends could be derived from it.

Within both "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" and "Ponyville Confidential", she's seen to have a shield spell, which appears to have come directly from her brother, Shining Armor.

In the Season 3 premiere, she learns what can best be described as unicorn dark magic simply by watching Celestia do it once.

Season 3 also shows that she has limits to what she can copy. While she can figure out how to cast a spell from seeing it once, that doesn't mean that she has the magical clout to make it work or cast it successfully.

Power Incontinence: A flashback reveals that the awakening of Twilight's magic immediately turned her into a immense danger to everyone and herself. Her attempts at using magic to rectify a problem have about a 50% chance of going this way. She qualifies as Pony of Mass Destruction during these moments.

Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot: Sorta. Sometimes she performs amazing feats of power, but she often also spectacularly messes up spells and makes everything much worse.

When she tries to stop Parasprites from eating all the food in Ponyville, the spell makes them eat the buildings instead.

In another instance, enchanting a plow to clean up snow on its own made the plow go out of control, making the mess worse when it ends up causing an avalanche that ruins everyone else's work.

In "Lesson Zero", Twilight tries to create a problem she can solve using the "Want It, Need It" spell on a doll, which quickly affects every pony in town. The ensuing riot prevents her from disenchanting the doll.

"Winter Wrap Up" openly displays how much weaker she is than an average Earth Pony and that she is rather klutzy with her hooves (unable to ice skate well or construct a bird's nest without the help of magic). Applejack and Rainbow Dash also state she is physically unfit for the race in "Fall Weather Friends". She gets the last laugh by coming in fifth while they tie for last.

She seems to have averted this by Season 2 as she can carry a boulder twice as large as herself, push a minecart, and holds her own against an army of Changelings.

Greatly averted in Season 4 as she was able to go head to head with a powered-up Tirek.

Story-Breaker Power: Played with. She can learn any kind of magic and has amazing strength magic-wise, but her lack of practicing and an over-reliance on analysis over battle skills can leave her vulnerable. See her example on the trope page to read more.

The Strategist: Twilight tends to make The Plan for the others and is an excellent fighter when she plans out her fights.

Summon Magic: Is seen summoning a Parasprite to eat up Trixie's pies in "Magic Duel". As soon as it did its job she banished it before it could multiply out of control.

Superpower Lottery: Short of Celestia and others like her, Twilight is the single most powerful pony in the series. For bonus points, she isn't limited by a specialized discipline and instead has magic itself as her skill. The Power Incontinence mentioned earlier balances it out so that she doesn't completely overshadow the rest of the main cast in capability.

Swiss Army Superpower: Her magic. Sure, spells have some vague rules, but she specializes in every kind of magic and has an enormous amount of raw power. The only story-wise limit for her magic might be that she can't do an outright Deus ex Machina.

Teleporters and Transporters: One of her signature spells. Unlike previous My Little Pony series, she is one of the very few unicorns with the ability to teleport that we've seen so far, the others being her mentor Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon, and fellow Celestia student Sunset Shimmer. Strangely, when she first teleports Spike with her, he comes out slightly singed. She says she did it by accident in that instance.

Her skill in teleporting seems to increase as the series goes on. Since "Secret of My Excess", it has been shown that Twilight is capable of teleporting others to her and with her. She teleports long-distance in "Dragon Quest", and it also establishes that her teleportation is not a Story-Breaker Power because long-distance and group teleportation takes too much energy to do regularly or rapidly.

Teleport Spam: Twilight has a tendency to warp around erratically or excessively when flustered. In "Applebuck Season", her frustration grows to the point that she stops walking to keep up with her friend and serial-teleports instead. In "Lesson Zero", she gets so stressed that she teleports across her room several times. In "The Crystal Empire - Part 1", Twilight incorporates a series of teleports in quick succession as part of her dance during "The Failure Song".

Unskilled, but Strong: She's the most magically powerful unicorn in the whole show, as is repeatedly pointed out. The "Unskilled" comes from the fact she often only practices a new spell until she can pull it off right in practice once, and then moves on to the next, more difficult spell. This practice severely limits the practical and effective use of her stronger spells in helping her with her day-to-day problems, which sometimes comes back to haunt her when the obstacles she faces require high-level magic and her power backfires or falters on the field. The 'strong' portion of this trope refers to her magical abilities; she is the physically weakest of the six, but can often use her intelligence (or magic) to help in situations where strength isn't an option.

This is taken Up to Eleven in the Season 4 finale: Twilight temporarily gains the powers of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance on top of her own. She's shown to have horrible control and can barely make her magic do what she wants it too. But she's just so insanely strong that she matches up equally against Lord Tirek — who, in addition to his own magic, has the stolen magic of all of Equestria and Discord.

Wave Motion Gun: In the Season 4 Finale after absorbing the powers of the other Princesses.

With Great Power Comes Great Perks: Like all unicorns, she uses magic for just about everything (where appropriate) and she gets more perks than most unicorns, because she can use any type of magic.

The Worf Effect: Despite being a powerful sorceress, she is occasionally defeated by the Monster of the Week so that another one of the main characters can defeat it, or fail a spell to make way for someone more powerful like Discord.

Appearance

Anime Hair: She has one for the majority of the episode "It's About Time".

Color-Coded Characters: Her name is Twilight, so naturally she's lavender. She also tends to dress up in blue, which reflects the color of the night sky.

Color-Coded Wizardry: Her horn and objects affected by her magic glow when she uses it. It was at first lavender and matched the color of her coat, but it is later a magenta color that matches the center of her Cutie Mark and her mane's Skunk Stripe. Her mother and big brother have the same magenta magic aura, so it may run in the family.

Dark Is Not Evil: Her first name is Twilight, a time period of night, and she can use magic that's more or less Black Magic, but she can also use magic to create light like most unicorns and she's a decent girl most of the time.

Symbol Motif Clothing: Her dress for the Grand Galloping Gala is decorated with stars, and she has a star around her chest at the Canterlot Wedding.

Tarot Motifs: In "Magic Duel", she uses telekinesis to levitate a bunch of animals above her head in the form of an infinity symbol, bringing to mind the Magician card which symbolizes not only The Protagonist, but also trickery; fitting, considering that's what she used to stop Trixie from using the Alicorn Amulet in that episode.

True Blue Femininity: Both her Grand Galloping Gala dress and her cape use this trope. Her early concept would've also had dark blue hair with a light blue Skunk Stripe.

Tsurime Eyes: More prominent on her toy and she is certainly strong willed.

Gets this in "A Bird in the Hoof" when she panics about Celestia's presence.

Also in "Swarm of the Century" for the same reason.

In "Lesson Zero", she's worried about letting Celestia down by being late with her Friendship Report, and gets this, twitchy ears, a teeth-grinding slasher smile, and a mussed up mane due to really, really losing it.

She is a certified Badass Bookworm, her brother is the captain of the Royal Guard who possesses one of Equestria's most potent defensive spells. Then he he marries Princess Cadance, a Badass Princess (who he saves the country with) and Princess Celestia's niece, making her now part of Celestia and Luna's family too. If the Mythology Gag about her mother Twilight Velvet being the G1 Twilight is correct, she counts too.

Spike, her adoptive brother/son, can take on three opponents who each outweigh him by a factor of five or more, and NOT get curb-stomped.

Big Brother Worship: As a filly, she thought of Shining Armor as her best and only friend (until she hatched Spike). When she came to Ponyville and made new friends they started to drift apart. This is what makes it hard to get others to side with her when she claims that Cadance is evil (she turns out to be right when this "Cadance" turns out to be an imposter), since she did appear to be possessive of her brother in the eyes of her peers for much of "A Canterlot Wedding".

Big Brother Mentor: Occasionally has moments of being a Big Sister Mentor toward either Spike or the CMC.

A Boy and His X: A Young Lady and her Baby Dragon. She hatched Spike as the entrance exam for a magic school, but he's more like her sidekick/little brother/son.

Et Tu, Brute?: If there is one thing that she couldn't bear, it's the betrayal from her friends.

In the two-parter episode, "The Return of Harmony", she felt this way when one by one, her friends were brainwashed by Discord and refused to help fight Discord for her.

She shows this reaction again in "A Canterlot Wedding" after her brother, friends and mentor turn their backs on her for saying that Cadance is evil. Subverted in this case since her being dismissed for accusing Cadance leads her to rethink her accusations and suffer a Jerkass Realization. Even after she was revealed to be right and the others show their remorse, with Applejack being the one to apologize on everypony's behalf, she made it clear in that she doesn't hold it against them. The real Et Tu moment came when she realizes that the fake Cadance she is apologizing to is evil, confirming her suspicions moments before she is dragged down to the abandoned cave in the underground.

The Kirk: She's generally at the balance between being emotional and logical, hence why she's the unofficial leader of the six.

One of the Boys: Before the pilot, Twilight had more male friends (Spike and Shining Armor) than girls (the only one being Princess Cadance). The IDW comics even revealed that as a filly, she sometimes played Oubliettes & Ogres along with her brother, Shining Armor, and his friends (who were high-school aged stallions at the time) from Canterlot Academy.

Pals with Jesus: She's the personal apprentice of Celestia and also became a good friend of Luna during the events of "Luna Eclipsed".

Parental Substitute: Can be seen as a mother or sister figure to Spike knowing that she hatched him as part of passing the entrance exam at her school as revealed in "Cutie Mark Chronicles" and also following the events in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". The parental skills are further supported by her remarks to Pinkie in "Baby Cakes". She seems to know well what babies need.

Absentee Actor: Notably averted in the first season, where she's the only main character to appear in every episode, but played straight from season two on. The primary purpose of "Lesson Zero" was to open the doors for future Twilight-free episodes.

And Knowing Is Half the Battle: At the end of most episodes in the first season, she writes a letter to Princess Celestia describing the Aesop she learned this week. It becomes a Chekhov's Gun when, after her losing faith thanks to Discord in the Season 2 premiere, Celestia sends them all back to break her out of her Heroic BSOD and motivate her to reunite her friends. As of "Lesson Zero", she has been given permission to pass this duty on to anyone around her that learns An Aesop. Revised again in Season 4, where a shared diary replaces the letters, since Twilight is no longer a student.

In the first two episodes, Twilight eventually brings peace to the two ponies representing night and day. "Twilight" is the time when night and day briefly intersect. Additionally, the book on the Elements of Harmony talks about a "spark" needed to ignite their power; this ends up being Twilight Sparkle. Plus she is responsible for reconciling night and day in the form of fixing Princess Luna, freeing her from being Nightmare Moon. Later she becomes a princess herself, complimenting the day/night motif.

In a physical and literal standpoint; she is lavender, which is usually the perceived color of a twilight sky (the middle part where day and night intersect), and she has stars for a cutie mark, which represents the few stars that you might see during this time period.

The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Despite not being used to her human form in the Equestria Girls films, she occasionally demonstrates some surprisingly human behavior that seem to imply this trope. For instance, when Flash Sentry is brought up in Rainbow Rocks, she quickly begins twirling her hair between her fingers in a manner very much like a typical schoolgirl.

Out of Focus: In Season 2, compared to her role in Season 1. She had only four focus episodes, has been in more of a supporting character role in most episodes, and has been missing entirely from three. Quite odd considering that she's supposed to be the lead protagonist of the mane cast. The writers clearly reveled in not needing to shoehorn her into every story after "Lesson Zero", which is more or less a good thing, considered a sign of flexibility on their part. Twilight appears to have lived up to her lead protagonist reputation once more in Season 3 to a certain degree where she's been generally of at least moderate importance in most episodes, typically not being present only when it wouldn't make sense for her to show up. Season 4 was a step backwards, giving her about the same amount of exposure as Season 2. Ironically considering her ascension to princesshood in the season prior, she received only six focus episodes. Of these six, two were the premiere, two were the finale, and the remaining two, "Twilight Time" and "Three's A Crowd", focused more on the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Discord respectively.

Stellar Name: "Twilight" is the time when day and night briefly intersectnote to be more specific, the times between dawn and sunrise and between sunset and dusk. During this time period, you may see a few stars in the sky. Stars are known to "sparkle".

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